Press critic Eric Boehlert has written a timely article about the failure of the press to do much more than parrot employers and Republican politicians who blame the inability to fill jobs on deadbeats who prefer to draw federal unemployment benefits.

The line is repeated every time a state like Arkansas cuts off federal unemployment early (a $280 million loss to 64,000 people in Arkansas, not to mention the general economy.)

Advertisement

Rarely are actual workers, economists or labor experts consulted, with their different take on circumstances. Instead, Republicans and business lobbyists are quoted, citing anecdotal evidence from THEIR side of the fence. No real evidence necessary. Boehlert writes:

That GOP narrative misses an important story unfolding as America emerges from the pandemic: Long-held assumptions about how we live are being scrambled.

For instance, as more schools nationwide reopen, millions of schoolchildren are opting not to return to in-person learning, just like millions of Americans, for now, are currently choosing not to return to the workforce. If the claim is that workers are staying home because the government is paying them in $300 weekly checks, what’s the reason students are staying home, since there’s no federal financial incentive to do so?

Answer: Priorities and lifestyles changed during the pandemic.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch recently nailed it in a column:

A year of lockdown has scrambled our ways of thinking about the workplace and where our paycheck fits into the broader meaning of life, our concept of what a job is worth, and — and here’s where things get really interesting — who hold the upper hand? For the first time in decades, American workers are wondering … who’s the boss?

Maybe the glut of low-paying jobs isn’t a sign of American slothfulness — it’s a growing sign of worker awareness and self-preservation.

Over the last four decades worker productivity in the U.S. has increased nearly 70 percent, but pay for hourly workers has only gone up 11 percent. People are working more efficiently, producing bigger profits for companies, and not being properly compensated.

That’s the more important story, and it’s going largely ignored by the mainstream media, which seem more interested in helping Republicans shame workers, as they deny additional unemployment benefits to two million people in red states.

Yep.

Advertisement